Category: Middle School

This trimester 6th grade students in Dr. Glen Emerson’s classes had opportunities to demonstrate their understanding of perimeter and area by designing and building treehouses in MinecraftEDU. MinecraftEDU is a special version of Minecraft software especially designed for teachers and schools. Teachers are able to create lessons and projects for students to virtually complete using a local MinecraftEDU server, which is only accessible by students in the class. Teachers can limit or restrict the building and interaction options available for students as appropriate for the lesson. Students were not only able to practice and demonstrate their math, design, and 3D visualization skills in this project, but were also able to practice problem solving as well as good digital citizenship.

After completing a “Minecraft Treehouse Challenge” project taught by Dr. Emerson, students gave presentations to their classmates and provided virtual, narrated tours of the treehouses and other structures which they built. This six minute video features interviews with sixth graders Kyuna, Lauryn, and Rachel. They provide a narrated tour of their treehouse, corral, and other structures they built collaboratively for this project.